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Hi, I'm Kevin and I'm an attorney, sharing economy expert, and the blogger behind Financial Panther. I paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer. I started this blog to share all I know about personal finance, travel hacking, and making more money by side hustling. Click here to learn more about me.
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What You Need To Know About The Chase One Sapphire Card Per Person Rule

Last Updated on January 22, 2020August 31, 2017 45 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links.Financial Panther has partnered with AwardWallet and CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Panther, AwardWallet, and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

It’s been a while since I wrote about credit cards, but I thought now would be a good time to talk about them because of a recent rule change that Chase made that’ll likely change up your travel hacking strategy. For sure, it’ll change up the Chase 5/24 Strategy that I laid out in a previous post (read that post for what I think is the optimal strategy for new travel hackers).

As reported on Doctor of Credit, Chase recently made a change that essentially limits you to earning the bonus on either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve unless you do a little bit of extra work.

You’ll still want to prioritize Chase branded cards before jumping to other cards because of the Chase 5/24 Rule, but you’ll need to know a little bit more info if you want to do it right.

Here’s what you need to know:

The New Chase Rule: One Sapphire Card Per Person

As a bit of background, Chase has three cards that are included in its Sapphire line of cards. These include the following cards:

  • Chase Sapphire
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve

For our purposes, only two cards really matter – the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The regular old Chase Sapphire card doesn’t really exist anymore, so you can just ignore that one.

This is what has happened under the new rule:

  1. As of right now, the official rule is that you can only have one Chase Sapphire branded card per person.
  2. If you already have multiple Chase Sapphire Cards (like I do), nothing will happen. They won’t close your accounts or anything like that.
  3. You can upgrade or downgrade your Chase Sapphire branded card if you want, but you’re not going to get a bonus if you do that.
  4. Chase has instituted a new 48-month limitation to earn the bonus again. That means you can earn the bonus on a Sapphire branded card once every 48 months from the date you earn the bonus.

Breaking it down, essentially what has happened is that Chase is basically treating the Sapphire cards as if they were all one card.

Which Chase Sapphire Card Should You Pick?

Here are the main differences between the two cards that we care about (there are more differences in benefits and things like that, but I’m not too concerned about those for these purposes):

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred – $95 annual fee, points are worth 1.25 cents per point through the Chase travel portal.
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve – $550 annual fee (not waived in the first year), $300 travel credit per statement year, points are worth 1.5 cents per point through the Chase travel portal, access to Priority Pass lounges and $100 towards global entry credit.

Which card you pick will really depend on the value you get from the cards.

  • The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a good pick and the one I recommend for anyone who’s a beginner or scared of diving into the travel hacking space. It comes with a $95 annual fee, but the current offer also gives you 10,000 more Chase points compared to the current offer on the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which essentially cancels out the annual fee. It’s perfect for anyone who’s just wanting to dip their toes into the world of travel hacking.
  • Generally, I recommend most people get the Chase Sapphire Reserve. It has a unique thing where you get a $300 travel credit each year, which makes the effective annual fee $250. Because the travel credit resets on your card anniversary date, you’re essentially getting $600 worth of travel credits in the first year you have the card while paying a $550 annual fee. With the addition of Priority Pass and the better travel portal, the Chase Sapphire Reserve has more value that makes the fee worthwhile.

Suggested Strategy With The One Sapphire Card Per Person Rule

With the new Chase One Sapphire Card Rule in place, your beginning strategy is going to change a little bit if you’re looking to optimize your cards.

Before this rule, you’d just grab both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Obviously, you can’t do that now.

  1. I typically recommend getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve because the travel credits offset the annual fee. If you’re deathly afraid of the higher annual fee, then I won’t get mad if you get the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
  2. After that, snag yourself the Chase Ink Preferred. It’s a business card, so you’ll technically need to have a business. However, if you’re side hustling like I’ve been doing, then you absolutely will have a business, which then makes you eligible to get the card. Right now, the Chase Ink Preferred is offering an 80,000 point signup bonus, which is the highest Chase signup bonus out there. [Learn more about how Business Credit Cards work here].

So this is what you need to know right now about the new Chase one Sapphire Card per person rule. If you feel like supporting this site at all, feel free to sign up for any of the cards I mentioned above using the links in the post. You’ll still get the same signup bonus, but I’ll get a bonus as well that helps me keep the content flowing.

Hit me up if you have any questions!

financial panther

Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the sharing economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.

Kevin is passionate about earning money using the sharing economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.

Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:

  • Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps Kevin uses to track his financial accounts.
  • SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $50 welcome bonus if you open an account and fund it with at least $500.
  • M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $10 for opening an account.
  • Dobot. This is a great microsaving app that monitors the cash flow in your bank account and saves away small amounts for you each week. It's free and you'll get $5 when you use it.

Feel free to send Kevin a message here.

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Filed Under: credit cards, Travel Hacking

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Comments

  1. Mrs. Adventure Rich says

    August 31, 2017 at 11:07 am

    Very interesting. This may not be apparent from the change, but do you know if this rule applies to authorized users? I have the Sapphire Preferred and Mr. AR is an authorized user. Do you know if he can open his own card and get the bonus in his name? Or does the authorized user aspect disqualify him?

    Reply
    • Working Optional says

      August 31, 2017 at 1:53 pm

      Yes – Mr. AR should still be able to get the sign up bonus for his Sapphire Preferred card.

      Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      August 31, 2017 at 3:34 pm

      I think – and you’ll want to do some research on this – that if you take him off as an authorized user, he should be able to open up his own Sapphire Preferred or Reserve and get the signup bonus. If he’s an authorized user, I would think that it’s like he already has the preferred, and thus, can’t get the bonus.

      Reply
  2. Working Optional says

    August 31, 2017 at 1:52 pm

    That sucks :). The wife had a CSReserve that we were gonna cancel and sign up for a CSPreferred instead. She already has a Chase Ink Plus – maybe its time to sign up for an Ink Preferred and close the other two

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      August 31, 2017 at 3:32 pm

      Better to not close them and instead downgrade them to a Chase Freedom and/or Chase Freedom Unlimited. Both are no-annual fee cards, and that way, you keep the credit history going for them. Always better to downgrade to a no annual fee card whenever possible. Remember though, if you’ve still got Chase Ultimate Rewards points that you haven’t used or transferred, you need to keep the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Reserve or Ink Preferred active. Otherwise, you lose the points that you didn’t use or transfer yet!

      You should definitely go for the Chase Ink Preferred if you can. 80k points is almost as good as the CSR 100k offer. This one just hasn’t been talked about as much because it’s a business card.

      Reply
      • cjdquest says

        September 7, 2017 at 5:14 pm

        Can’t you combine Chase Ultimate Rewards points from the CSP or CSR onto to a Chase Freedom card with no annual fee? I logged into my Chase account and this seems possible, but I didn’t pull the trigger.

        Reply
        • Financial Panther says

          September 7, 2017 at 5:59 pm

          The problem if you do that is that if you store Chase Ultimate Rewards points on a “non-premium” card like the Freedom or Freedom Unlimited, you can’t transfer them to travel partners. You have to have “premium” card, like the CSP, CSR, or Ink Preferred in order to redeem for travel.

          Reply
          • cjdquest says

            September 8, 2017 at 1:58 pm

            Whoa thanks FP, that was not immediately clear inside the Chase interface!

            Reply
          • Danny says

            June 6, 2018 at 3:28 pm

            I don’t think that’s true. You can move the points from Chase Freedom to Sapphire Preferred.

            Reply
            • Financial Panther says

              June 6, 2018 at 3:36 pm

              The Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) is a “premium” card – not in the same family as the Chase Freedom cards.

              This was from a long time ago, so not sure what I was discussing almost a year ago – but I obviously misspoke when I said “lose” the points. I just meant that you can’t use them for travel partners if you only have the CF or CFU.

              Thanks for pointing that out – it’s been a while since I’ve looked at the comments on this post, so good to point out.

              In short, if you want to use travel partners, you need a premium Chase card. If you don’t have a premium chase card, you can only redeem your UR points at 1 cent per point in the travel portal, which is not the best way to use the points.

              Reply
  3. Gary @ Debt Free Climb says

    September 13, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    Nice Article!

    I got lucky and got the CSP (for 2nd time) one week before the new rule was announced.

    I downgraded my CSR to a 2nd freedom rather than cancelling last week. I wonder if I would have gotten the additional $300 travel credit if I kept my CSR for a few days after my AF. I got 2 $300 credits for 2016 and 2017 before they switched the travel credit rule. Technically that would be $900 in credits

    I’m interested in the InK preferred but am a little nervous to apply bc my side hustle income is not enough to be considered an actual business (my opinion). Are you able to combine all your side hustles in the application? If so what is the “Company Name”.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      September 14, 2017 at 9:08 am

      You can definitely get the Ink Preferred (CIP, as the travel hacking folks call it). Any bit of side income you make is a business – you don’t have to be some huge company. My buddy got his CIP just by dog sitting a few times on Rover. He’d made less than 100 bucks at that point. You’ve got a blog – that’s a legit business, even if it’s not making a lot of money.

      So in conclusion, don’t be nervous. I guarantee you can get the Ink Preferred without any hassle. (and if you do go for the Ink Preferred and don’t already have a referral link to use, use mine! I’d super appreciate it!).

      Reply
  4. Andy says

    February 25, 2018 at 7:42 pm

    Is the “double dip” method of signing up for both CSP and CSR on the day actually allowed by Chase? Or is this simply an unintended loophole?

    While it technically works, if you break the rules, Chase can technically strip you of your accumulated points. I would be worried about this.

    Has anyone actually asked a Chase representative of if doing the same-day signup is legitimate or not?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      February 26, 2018 at 11:06 am

      Rule number 1 with any sort of credit card bonus thing – never ask the reps about it! It is legitimate though. There are tons of people who have done this on the Reddit churning subreddit. Check here for more info – this is the best source of credit card info out there. Also, as far as I’m aware, the signup bonus doesn’t say that you’re only allowed to earn a signup bonus on one Sapphire card. It’s just that the current system has it set up so that, if you have one Sapphire card, you aren’t able to get a second one.

      Reply
  5. Eric says

    March 23, 2018 at 9:28 am

    Any thoughts on whether a current CSP owner (over 24mo) can downgrade from CSP to retain their points, THEN sign up for the CSR to get the bonus out of it?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      March 23, 2018 at 11:25 am

      Right now, you can’t get the CSR bonus unless its been 24 months since you got your last bonus from any Sapphire type card. So, if you have a CSP now, you’ll need to calculate when you got the bonus, then wait 24 months. At that point, you’ll be eligible to get the bonus again.

      Reply
  6. JZATL says

    March 29, 2018 at 8:55 am

    You cannot double dip the $300 travel credit. Chase did away with that for anyone that applied for the CSR after May or June of 2017. The travel credit now follows your card anniversary and not the calendar year. I applied for my CSR in September 2017 and will not be eligible for the credit again until September 2018.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      March 29, 2018 at 9:09 am

      Not true actually. Once you hit your 2nd year and pay your second annual fee, you can then use up the travel credit, then downgrade the card to a Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited. Chase gives you 30 to 60 days to downgrade the card and get a full refund of your annual fee. You’ll still get to use the travel credit a second time, and you’ll be refunded your annual fee.

      So, to double dip the travel credit, you would do this:

      (1) Year 1 = get the Sapphire Reserve, pay the annual fee, use the travel credit.

      (2) Year 2 = pay the annual fee in year 2. $300 travel credit resets. Use up all of the travel credit within 30 to 60 days.

      (3) Downgrade the card to a Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited. Annual fee is refunded. Travel credit is used up. You’ve paid one annual fee of $450 and received $600 in travel credits.

      Does that make sense?

      Reply
      • dizzy says

        November 12, 2020 at 11:16 am

        Hey, is this still valid? Need to see whether or not to upgrade my CSP to CSR, or go ahead and downgrade to freedom.

        Reply
        • Financial Panther says

          November 14, 2020 at 11:11 am

          Yep, still works. This is what I do every single year.

          Reply
  7. Alex says

    May 9, 2018 at 8:49 am

    Would it be possible to do this:
    1) Get a CSP, 50k bonus
    2) Let 12 months pass
    3) Downgrade to CFU
    4) Year 2, Get a CSR, 50k Bonus

    I already calculated that this is only worth it if less than ~25k is spent on travel/dining during 2 years, since the bonus from CSP would then be overshadowed by the extra points from having CSR all along.

    But are there any other considerations to this? CSR getting sunsetted notwithstanding?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 9, 2018 at 8:54 am

      You won’t be able to do that because you can only earn the bonus on a CSP or CSR once every 24 months. So, if you get the CSP bonus in year 1, you can’t get a bonus from the CSP OR the CSR until 24 months from the date you earned the bonus. Basically, the only way to get both bonuses now is to open them both at the same time (i.e. double dip them).

      Reply
      • Alex says

        May 9, 2018 at 9:13 am

        Gotcha! Thanks!

        Reply
  8. Jo says

    October 11, 2018 at 12:53 pm

    Does this double-dip process currently work? I’ve read a few other sites that said it no longer works. Has anyone done this recently? I only have one Chase card, and would love to get these two as well!
    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      October 11, 2018 at 12:54 pm

      The double dip is dead. Need to update this post. But check my recent post on what should be your first credit card if you need ideas about how to approach this now.

      Reply
      • Sans Vid says

        May 3, 2019 at 6:36 pm

        Really? It’s no longer possible to double dip on the travel credit? 🙁 I was just about to sign up

        Reply
        • Financial Panther says

          May 15, 2019 at 9:05 am

          You can still double dip the travel credit. In year 1, you pay the $450 annual fee on the CSR. Use up the $300 travel credit. In year 2, you pay the $450 annual fee again and you get another $300 travel credit. Use up your $300 travel credit within 30 days of your Annual Fee, then you can downgrade your CSR to a Freedom or Freedom Unlimited and they’ll refund you your annual fee. So, you’ll have paid $450 in annual fees, but received $600 in travel credits, which means a net gain of $150.

          Reply
  9. Wayne Crannell says

    January 15, 2019 at 1:15 am

    OK…to confirm. I’ve got a 14 year old CS and a 12 year old CSP. I’m also well under the 5/24. Can I product switch these both to a Freedom and a Freedom Unlimited and then apply for the CSR AND qualify for the signup bonus? I really want the CSR, but the bonus is kind of a deal breaker.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      January 15, 2019 at 2:47 pm

      Hey Wayne, I think I need to update this post due to some recent changes. But in short, you should product change your CS and CSP to a Freedom and Freedom Unlimited (or maybe two Freedoms if you can take advantage of the rotating 5% categories – you’re allowed to have two freedoms).

      Once you’ve done that, you can apply for the CSR and you will qualify for the signup bonus. Hope that helps.

      Reply
  10. Samuel Hsiao says

    January 15, 2019 at 6:22 pm

    I have the CSR. I am going into my third year. Would I be able to downgrade to a freedom card and then apply for the CSR again to get the bonus?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      January 15, 2019 at 9:48 pm

      The Sapphire cards recently changed the rules to 1 bonus every 48 months (used to be 24 months), so unfortunately, you won’t be able to earn the bonus for another year.

      Reply
      • Anonymous says

        January 16, 2019 at 3:49 am

        Ok but I can downgrade and apply again for the CSR at some point. The only thing I have been reading is people downgrading from CSR to Freedom and then reapplying for the CSP.

        Reply
        • Financial Panther says

          January 16, 2019 at 10:26 am

          Yep, you can downgrade to the Freedom or Freedom Unlimited, then apply for the CSR or CSP and get the bonus again. You just need to wait 48 months from the date you last earned a bonus on a Saphire card.

          Reply
  11. Sans Roy says

    May 3, 2019 at 6:39 pm

    I’m curious about experiences. I am “pre-qualified” for Chase Sapphire Preferred (see it under Just For You) when logged into Chase. 65k income, 15+ years of credit history, never a late payment before.. 120k credit available with 3% utilization.

    But I want the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Do I have a good chance of getting the Reserve even though I’m “pre-qualified” for the Chase Sapphire Preferred? I don’t have any Sapphire products and I’m at 3/24.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 15, 2019 at 9:06 am

      You’ll definitely get the Reserve. Like I can say with 100% certainty you would get the CSR with no problem.

      Reply
  12. Ramu Manjunath says

    June 4, 2019 at 10:41 pm

    if I do double tip, will it show two accounts in the credit history with one Hard pull?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      June 5, 2019 at 9:09 am

      I believe under the current system, you’ll have two hard pulls. I think I need to update this post because the current double dip procedure doesn’t work. You now have to do something called the modified double dip.

      Reply
  13. George says

    September 23, 2019 at 2:11 pm

    Modified double dip doesn’t work anymore?

    Reply
  14. Cpip says

    December 9, 2019 at 6:13 pm

    I have a CSP and want to get a CSR. Is there a way to get my CSP points onto my CSR points? If not, do I have to redeem all my points before switching in order to not lose them? Or any tips on managing points before switching?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      December 13, 2019 at 12:00 pm

      You won’t lose your points. Just don’t close the CSP, downgrade it to CF or CFU. They’ll stay on there and you’ll be able to use them next time you get a CIP or CSR.

      Reply
  15. EJ says

    December 10, 2019 at 8:47 pm

    Your referral link is a dead link. Wanna fix that so you get a referral credit when I sign up?

    Reply
    • EJ says

      December 10, 2019 at 8:48 pm

      To be specific, the link for the Sapphire Reserve is dead

      Reply
      • Financial Panther says

        December 11, 2019 at 2:42 pm

        Hey EJ,

        I don’t have a link for it right now. Working on getting my stuff through compliance so I can get affiliate links for cards, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Thanks for the support though!

        Reply
  16. gpks00 says

    December 17, 2019 at 3:21 pm

    I’ve have
    CSP for 7y
    CSR for 3y

    Had Ink 5y ago
    Had Ink Bold 6y ago

    Sounds like I should downgrade CSP to freedom and apply for another CSP or Ink, correct?
    Is it easy to get more than one business card for ebay sells bus? or stick with just one Bus card?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      December 26, 2019 at 3:49 pm

      Since you got the CSR 3 years ago, you won’t be eligible for any bonus from the Sapphire brand of cards until 48 months from whenever that CSR bonus posted. So you’ve still got another year you have to wait.

      You are eligible for the CIP (Chase Ink Preferred), so that’s what I would get if I were you.

      It’s easy to get multiple business cards, especially if you actually have multiple businesses. I’ve had as many as 5 Chase business cards open at once.

      Reply

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